Nadine Aubry appointed as dean of the College of Engineering

Nadine Aubry — a widely known leader in the field of mechanical engineering, particularly fluid mechanics — will lead the College of Engineering as dean starting this fall.

North­eastern Uni­ver­sity Provost Stephen W. Director has announced the University’s appoint­ment of accom­plished scholar Nadine Aubry as dean of the Col­lege of Engi­neering, effec­tive Sep­tember 1, 2012. Aubry comes to North­eastern from Carnegie Mellon Uni­ver­sity, where she most recently was Ray­mond J. Lane Dis­tin­guished Uni­ver­sity Pro­fessor and head of the Depart­ment of Mechan­ical Engi­neering. A widely known leader in the field of mechan­ical engi­neering, par­tic­u­larly fluid mechanics, Aubry was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engi­neering in 2011.

“An accom­plished scholar and a member of the National Academy of Engi­neering, she brings a pow­erful set of expe­ri­ences in lead­er­ship and inno­va­tion at the fron­tiers of engi­neering research and edu­ca­tion,” said Director, provost and senior vice pres­i­dent of aca­d­emic affairs, in his mem­o­randum to the Uni­ver­sity com­mu­nity. “Under her lead­er­ship I expect the Col­lege of Engi­neering to reach new heights as a leader in expe­ri­en­tial research and edu­ca­tion, espe­cially in inter­dis­ci­pli­nary fields in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Northeastern’s other col­leges,” he added.

Her ground­breaking con­tri­bu­tions to fluid dynamics also earned her the dis­tinc­tion of fellow of the Amer­ican Society of Mechan­ical Engi­neers, the Amer­ican Phys­ical Society, the Amer­ican Insti­tute for Aero­nau­tics and Astro­nau­tics and the Amer­ican Asso­ci­a­tion for the Advance­ment of Science.

“I am deeply hon­ored to have been selected as the next leader of this vibrant col­lege of engi­neering,” said Aubry. “I feel extremely priv­i­leged and excited to have the oppor­tu­nity to work with the fac­ulty, stu­dents, staff, alumni and industry part­ners to bring the col­lege to even greater heights and increase its impact.”

During her tenure at Carnegie Mellon, Aubry led her depart­ment through sig­nif­i­cant advances, including a major fac­ulty hiring ini­tia­tive, restruc­turing the grad­uate pro­gram, increasing the number of grad­uate stu­dents three­fold, estab­lishing dual Ph.D. pro­grams with insti­tu­tions in Asia, ren­o­vating and upgrading research and teaching lab­o­ra­to­ries and dou­bling the budget.

She also led a major under­grad­uate cur­riculum reform to strengthen the stu­dents’ lab­o­ra­tory and com­puter expe­ri­ence while also exposing them to global oppor­tu­ni­ties. She expanded the study abroad pro­gram and founded the Inter­na­tional Service-​​Learning Engi­neering ini­tia­tive, which — sim­ilar to Northeastern’s co-​​op and expe­ri­en­tial learning pro­grams — pro­vide stu­dents with oppor­tu­ni­ties to apply their engi­neering edu­ca­tion and con­front real-​​world chal­lenges across the globe.

“Nadine Aubry is a truly out­standing scholar in the field of engi­neering,” said Joseph E. Aoun, pres­i­dent of North­eastern Uni­ver­sity. “Her accom­plish­ments in research and inno­va­tion make her the ideal person to lead the Col­lege of Engi­neering and advance the University’s momentum in devel­oping sci­en­tific solu­tions to real-​​world challenges.”

In April, Aubry was named Uni­ver­sity Pro­fessor — the highest fac­ulty rank at Carnegie Mellon — and has been leading the Depart­ment of Mechan­ical Engi­neering there since 2006. She has also held aca­d­emic posi­tions at the City Col­lege of the Uni­ver­sity of New York and at the New Jersey Insti­tute of Tech­nology, where she was the F. Leslie and Mil­dred Jacobus Chair and Dis­tin­guished Pro­fessor and served as chair of the Depart­ment of Mechan­ical Engi­neering for five years.

Aubry has held lead­er­ship roles nation­ally and inter­na­tion­ally. She was elected Vice Chair — to become Chair Elect and Chair — of the Amer­ican Phys­ical Society Divi­sion of Fluid Dynamics. She is a former chair of the U.S. National Com­mittee on The­o­ret­ical and Applied Mechanics — the National Research Council com­mittee that rep­re­sents the U.S. nation­ally and inter­na­tion­ally in sci­en­tific mat­ters related to the field of mechanics.

She also serves as a member (and is a former chair) of the National Academy of Sci­ences del­e­ga­tion to the Inter­na­tional Union of The­o­ret­ical and Applied Mechanics.

Born in France, she received a “diplome d’Ingenieur” from the National Poly­technic Insti­tute of Grenoble, France, and a master’s degree from the Sci­en­tific and Med­ical Uni­ver­sity, also in Grenoble. She earned her Ph.D. from the Sibley School of Mechan­ical and Aero­space Engi­neering at Cor­nell University.

Aubry will suc­ceed Allen Soyster, interim dean, who will return to the Col­lege of Engi­neering as a member of the faculty.

3 comments

Plau­dits to Nadine. She’ll make a great Dean. This country needs more young people to study Engi­neering, and I’m still working at it at the tender age of 75. What a won­derful skill to wake up for every morning. It had been my great plea­sure to hire many young engi­neers from N.U. when I was a super­visor with the Army Corps of Engineers.

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